Might you be next?

The Very Rev Dr Martin Fair reflects on the changing face of ministry from the 1970s to today.

ASK a teacher with thirty years of experience if the job has changed in that time and you’d better have an hour or so available, as the answer would be an extended one!

The same would be true of almost every role you can imagine – from bank clerk to shop assistant to firefighter to nurse to soldier to architect.

We should hardly be surprised therefore that the role of those in ministry has changed too – markedly so. As the Church of Scotland as a whole has seen huge numerical decline, so we have seen a significant drop-off in terms of the numbers in ministry, meaning that ‘doing what we always did’ is not an option. Of course, there are elements of ministry that are unchanging, regardless of a fastchanging religious and cultural landscape, but how it looks in practice will be different, in terms of priorities and day to day activity.

Some of those differences emerged through a fascinating conversation that was arranged between two ministers – one who was ordained in the late 1970s and though retired, still serves as a locum, and one who was ordained and inducted to their first charge in late 2019, only a few months before the onset of the Covid-19 pandemic!

As they chatted, the most obvious difference that emerged in terms of the exercising of their respective ministries was the proportion of time spent ‘in the church’ and ‘in the community’ – the older minister acknowledging that the bulk of their time had been spent in and around the congregation and the younger minister speaking of their sense of needing to spend a considerable proportion of their time beyond the confines of the congregation.

As the conversation unfolded, it was quite clear that neither minister felt that the other had got it wrong. Rather, both acknowledged that changing times demanded new approaches. In an age when fewer people are coming to Church, our younger minister senses the need to go to where people are and to be looking for ways to build relationships with those who have no contact with the Church and little or no sense of Christian faith.

In remembering earlier days, our senior minister recalled that sermon preparation, school assemblies, hospital visiting and the work associated with weddings and funerals took up much of the time. There was recollection, too, of being advised, during training, to conduct 35 visits each week!

The newer of the two ministers sees the value in visitation but struggles to contemplate having it so central in terms of time commitment. He chooses instead to prioritise and to focus his visits where the needs are greatest and not least when that revolves around people new to faith or, perhaps, where a person is thought to be drifting away from involvement. That aside, the strategy is for the pastoral work to be overseen by the elders. This minister acknowledges that choices have to be made, that it’s impossible to be in two places at once and that devoting time to pastoral visitation would have to be at the expense of reaching out.

The dilemma is obvious and is not lessened by the fact that though circumstances have changed, expectations of those who minister hasn’t always kept pace.

As the various ministries of the Church continue to evolve, the Towards Ministry Team looks forward to engaging with those who are sensing a call from God and who are up for the challenge of ministering in an ever-changing world. 

Could it be you?

The Very Rev Dr Martin Fair is Pathways to Ministry Manager with the Church of Scotland.